By Gemma Simpson, 12 September 2007 16:11
NEWS
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is giving BlackBerrys to its staff to encourage flexible and more productive working.
The MoD is using a BlackBerry Enterprise Server to give staff access to email on the move and also give IT workers the ability to remotely control, shut down and wipe any gadgets which are lost or stolen. The server is approved by the Communications and Electronics Security Group for the communication of data at the "restricted" level.
silicon.com Public Sector
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An MoD spokesman told silicon.com there will be "no restriction" on the numbers of devices to be dished out and anyone within the MoD who has a business need for a BlackBerry can get one.
The spokesman said BlackBerrys will encourage flexible working, improve communications and allow MoD staff to utilise any unproductive time - for example when travelling.
The rollout began today with MoD staff getting a choice of two smart phones: the BlackBerry 8700v or the 8707v.
The spokesman added: "The decision reflects the MoD's desire to create a modern workforce of which Blackberrys are firmly a part."
Comments
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1. Chris Goodman
A terrible misuse of budget when the servicemen and women are ill equipped, poorly paid, virtually dumped when disabled, projects over budget, etc.
Heads should roll for this misuse of funds - although we all know they won't lose their snug little jobs - which should be done in office and not need mobile IT.
And should one be lost, will the same criteria be applied as is used for servicemen losing items - the loser have the cost deducted from salary!!!
2. Mike Cherry
So, MoD has assessed Blackberry to be secure enough for use at the second level of the five level information classification structure(Protected, Restricted, Confidential, Secret, Top Secret). It would have been interesting to find out what (if any) additional security the ministry requires on the use of these devices. Authentication? Encryption?
As presented the article seems to be giving the message that Blackberry is so secure even the MoD uses it... clearly this is not quite the case.